Stitch is the name of the genetic experiment 626, a fictional alien protagonist from the Lilo & Stitch films and television program. Originally created to cause chaos across the galaxy, he is marked by his short temper and mischievous behavior, traits that endear him to his friend Lilo, who adopted him as her puppy dog. He is voiced by his creator and the film's co-director, Chris Sanders.

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Personality

Throughout the course of the entire Lilo & Stitch franchise, Stitch is depicted as a character that is unlikable to many people except Lilo (on rare occasions, even she falls out with him, most notably in Lilo & Stitch 2, where she cries out at him that he is "bad and always will be bad!"), due to his destructive and temperamental behavior. It is interesting to note that people who are averse to Stitch (such as Mertle Edmonds and Dr. Hamsterviel) describe him as "ugly and deformed", while those who do love him (like Lilo, Nan and Jumba) describe him as "cute and fluffy". This reflects the basic idea behind Stitch and also his cousins: they do not correspond to many established criteria of good physical appearance, having an extra pair of arms, misshapen heads or other odd features.

When Stitch is in his "evil" form (which is his true alien form), he is undeniably worrying as his somewhat botched physique underlines his at the time twisted behavior; in his "good" form however (the "koala" form that is trademarked and the form that the audience most often sees), Stitch's display of emotion at being rejected for his misbehavior and looks while trying to act good for Lilo are meant to make him seem more adorable to the audience. Despite his surface destructiveness, which does not go away completely even after he has become "good", Stitch is a complex character: according to his creator Jumba, Stitch as a destructive machine was not given a greater purpose in life. Since Stitch is trapped on an island in Hawaii, where there are relatively few things to destroy, he has many occasions to reflect on other occupations than evil. It is implied that Stitch destroys only because that is what he is programmed to do; but since he has a personality of his own (a fact that only Lilo truly understands), he also has the choice, and even the will, not to do so.

Despite having superhuman strength and a high level of computer-intelligence, Stitch is emotionally fragile beneath his monsteresque exterior. Lilo believes that one reason why he originally pursued his destructiveness was for reasons similar to her own naughtiness, that it was because he was emotionally scarred (for having been made as a monster by Jumba) but received little or no understanding or sympathy from others. Stitch becomes much more well-meaning after his betterment, but is frequently unable to control all of his impulses to anti-social actions. Fortunately for him, Lilo (and later Reuben and Angel) is always there to support him and he returns her support willingly.

There is a common misconception from viewers that Lilo is dependent on Stitch for protection and support; if anything, it is Stitch who is more dependent on Lilo. Despite her having her own troubles to contend with, Lilo makes every effort to help Stitch in life and, as the story progresses, he becomes more self-conscious and capable of making the right decisions thanks to his friend. At the end of the series, Stitch has friends, family, loved ones and a purpose worth believing in.
Before Stitch was rehabilitated, he was a vicious and extremely aggressive and mischievous creature.

After Stitch was rehabilitated, though his mischievous and destructive tendencies remained, he possessed a heart of gold.

He also seems to like turtles, being there is a picture of Stitch shading two sea turtles in the credits of the original Lilo & Stitch movie and snuggling a turtle after a nightmare in Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch. As well as having a soft spot for turtles, he also seems to like frogs. He gently move frogs out of harm's way constantly and seems to talk to them as if they are his friends. These likes may be a sign that Stitch may be growing fond of earth creatures.

Starting off bad as he was programmed by Jumba Jookiba, Stitch was originally designed to create pandemonium and chaos wherever he was. He was also designed to steal people's left shoe, but Lilo changed his ways a while after adopting him at an animal shelter.

Stitch is still prone to having temper tantrums when things don't go his way or he sees that he's been squirted by the water bottle for something that he thought was good. So he's not all good all of the time. He also gets easily angered by inanimate objects, especially the toaster. The toaster has popped toast in his face once and since then he has beaten up the toaster and juiced it at least twice.

The last thing about Stitch's personality is that he's got a huge appetite and gets angry if he doesn't get what he wants to eat.

Appearance

Stitch is a blue, koala/dog-like experiment with light blue patches around his eyes, and a light blue patch running from under his chin down to his stomach, two dark blue markings; one on the back of his head, and the other on his back, large rabbit-like ears with pink insides and dark blue tips on the back, a wide mouth with a pink inside, white teeth, a navy round nose, navy claws and toes, large black, tear-shaped, pupil-less eyes, a small, short, stubby tail, stubby legs, two nose wrinkles, one chin wrinkle, three tuffs of sharp hair on top of his head and on his chest, as well as two extra, retractable arms, sharp navy retractable claws on his front and back paws, three thick, long, sharp, venomous retractable porcupine-like spines tipped with white and a very dark navy that run down his back and two long dark blue-tipped retractable bug-like antennae on his head, but his antennae and spines are a few centimeters longer than that of Reuben's and some of Jumba's other 600 series creations. He stands 3 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 120 lbs., but is taller than Reuben.

In his "dog form", he wears a red flea collar with a gold name tag.

In his alien form, he wears a red spacesuit with an upside-down triangle consisting of a red border and yellow center on his chest and each of his sleeves and patches consisting of a dark red border and orange center on each of his legs, black belt with a dark red square buckle, both black collar, cuffs, and anklets.

Appearances

As revealed in the movie, Stitch was created by "evil genius" Dr. Jumba Jookiba, who called him "Experiment 626". Both Jumba and Stitch were captured and put on trial by the United Galactic federation.

626 is then sentenced by the Grand Councilwoman to life imprisonment on a desert asteroid and Captain Gantu (who despises him) escorts him. Stitch escapes and crash-lands in Kaua'i, Hawaii. Disguising himself as a dog to hide from his captors, 626 was adopted by a little girl named Lilo, who names him "Stitch."

Stitch is trained by Lilo to be good, using Elvis Presley as a model for his behavior. Lilo's efforts prove to be fruitless at first, as Stitch is unable to suppress his destructive programming. Nevertheless, Lilo enjoys her new "puppy". Although at first he only wanted to use the girl as a human shield from Jumba and Agent Pleakley, whose mission is to capture the fugitive experiment, Stitch slowly develops feelings for Lilo, to the point where he saves her from Gantu. After his heroics, the Grand Councilwoman allows Stitch to serve his exile on Earth with Lilo as his warder, citing her dog adoption certificate (subsequently, Lilo seems to have become not only a best friend but also a sister figure to Stitch).

In Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (set shortly after the first movie), Stitch is living well and is reasonably well-behaved (although still hot-tempered and mischievous) with the exiled Jumba and Pleakley in Lilo's (and her older sister Nani's) house, until he begins malfunctioning. Since he was not fully charged after his creation, Stitch experiences periodic glitches that have him reverting back to his original destructive programming, appearing to suffer from a "fit" or "seizure." Seeing this, Jumba strives to create a proper charging chamber for Stitch. Not wanting to hurt anyone and not knowing about Jumba's plan, Stitch attempts to leave Earth for a remote planet, while Lilo, Jumba, and the others desperately try to have him return so they can recharge him. Although they are too late when they place him in the recharging pod, Stitch seems to be revived by Lilo's love, in accordance with her belief that love is more powerful than death.

In Stitch! The Movie, 626 discovers the remaining 625 genetic experiments locked in a crate, in the form of dehydrated pods. In order to rescue a kidnapped Jumba a trade between Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel and Jumba for the experiments is organized, but it instead results in the freedom of the experiments and the capture of Lilo and Stitch. Hämsterviel then tries to clone Stitch but he was rescued by Experiment 221 ("Sparky"). Stitch then rescued Lilo and landed Hämsterviel's spacecraft back in Kaua'i, where the Grand Councilwoman waited to arrest the evil rodent. She then puts Stitch and Lilo in charge of capturing and taming the other illegal genetic experiments scattered on the island.

In Lilo and Stitch: The Series, Stitch and Lilo have to capture Jumba's Experiments, turn them from evil to good, and find them a home. Along the way, he meets his match Experiment 627 (who is tougher than him), and he eventually defeats him. He also is effected by twelve experiment powers: Amnesio wipes out his memory, Spike makes him goofy, Babyfier turns him into a baby, Spooky turns into water and nearly drowns him, Lax makes him lazy, Dupe duplicates him into four, weakening his strength, Frenchfry serves him un-nutritious meals (along with Lilo and Pleakley) and fattens him up into a giant bowling ball, Yaarp sounds out his loud megaphone, deafening him, Snooty sucks out his Snootonium, putting him out of commission, Swirly hypnotizes him, Drowsy (in the episode "PJ") puts him to sleep, and Houdini makes him invisible. However, the powers wear off. He also meets Experiment 624 ("Angel") who is introduced as a love interest for Stitch. Angel eventually fell in love with Stitch. She was captured but later rescued by Lilo and Stitch.

After they have successfully captured all the remaining experiments in Leroy & Stitch, The Grand Councilwoman offered Stitch the chance to become the captain of the Galactic Armada and its new flagship, The BRB (Big Red Battleship) 9000. However, that would require Stitch to be separated from Lilo. Not wanting to make Lilo sad, he chooses to return to Kaua'i but Lilo tells him he should go. Before he leaves with Jumba and Pleakley, Lilo gives him a necklace with a tiki of the god Ku Tiki to give him strength. When Gantu breaks out Dr. Hämsterviel in an action of frustration, Stitch is sent on his first mission to capture the evil rodent once more. But when he arrives at Galactic Defense Industries, Stitch faces off against a new experiment -- Leroy, who is an enhanced doppelganger of Stitch. Stitch fights well and is about to beat Leroy when Pleakley shows up unexpectedly, allowing Leroy to take advantage of Stitch's lapse in concentration and beat him. He is knocked into a capsule and sent with Jumba and Pleakley heading towards a black hole. After they are sent towards the black hole, Leroy heads off towards earth to capture all of the other experiments for Hamsterviel. Later, Stitch, Jumba, and Pleakley escape from the black hole, and arrive on the planet Turo. There they rescue Lilo, 625 (now known as Reuben), and Gantu, and then fly Pleakley's carpool van back to Earth to assist the other 624 experiments in the defeat of an army of Leroys. Now, with Leroy defeated, Stitch, Jumba and Pleakley return to Earth with Lilo, realizing family is more important than spaceships, laboratories, and prestige.

In the anime series Stitch!, this version of Stitch seems to have reverted to his destructive nature, and is first seen in the first episode being chased in a spaceship by Jumba and the authorities. In the original version (aired in Japan), leaves a plot hole to why Stitch is not with Lilo anymore. For unknown reasons, they wanted to leave this open to the viewers' imagination. Some also claim this story takes place in an alternate universe where Stitch never met Lilo in the first place, which would explain why Stitch returned to his destructive nature. However, in the heavily edited English adaption of the anime, it is implied that Stitch is doing this because of emotional trauma, as Jumba tells him, "Just because little girl Lilo, has new boyfriend now and is all washed up with 626 (Stitch) is no reason to act bad," suggesting that the now Lilo has deserted him for a new boyfriend. Despite this, when confronted by Yuna (a Japanese little girl who is the series' equivalent to Lilo) about his family not caring for him, he states "Lilo cares.", which implies he still thinks she cares about him.

(Note: Lilo does not appear in any way in the anime, and isn't mentioned at all in the original version. Probably, the Japanese decided to change the entire plot with Lilo being excluded.)

Powers & Abilities

Experiment Physiology: While explaining his creation to the Galactic Council early on in Lilo & Stitch, Dr. Jumba gives the following rundown of Stitch's powers: "He is bulletproof, fireproof, and can think faster than [a] super computer. He can see in the dark and can move objects 3,000 times his size. His only instinct - to destroy everything he touches!" His primary function was creating War and Terror, clogging sewer pipes, reversing stop signs, and stealing everyone's left shoe.

Dense Body Tissue: Although we rarely see Stitch shot at with a bullet, he does survive the crash of his spaceship with only a scratch, is only briefly stunned by a fall of several thousand feet and has to be run over by three tractor-trailers in succession to be knocked out.

Fireproof Skin: As for fireproof, he does drive a tanker truck of gasoline into a volcano and ends up only a little singed.

Bulletproof Skin: Weapons fired from plasma guns seem to cause him discomfort, although he can hold it in his hands long enough to throw the plasma back at his enemies.

Shockproof: He also has some resistance to electricity, he was able to take a electrical attack from Sparky and he quickly recovered from it. However, he can still feel pain from shocking despite his immunity to electricity.

Enhanced Intellect: Stitch is highly intelligent as he had learned English and some Hawaiian sayings from Lilo, though he prefers using his alien talk called Tantalog. Stitch uses 90% of his brain for high mental functions, unlike the rest of Jumba's 600 series creation, as opposed to the few percent used by humans. He is able to understand thousands of alien languages and sub-dialects, including some of the most obscure in the Galaxy. 626 is easily able to operate auto mobiles as well as be able to programs computer with amazing rapidity that comes easily to him and de-bug Windows Operating System software.

Hypercognition: Thinking faster than a super computer is harder to quantify, but he does escape from captivity fairly ingeniously, builds a model of San Francisco after only glancing at a postcard; grabs a crossword puzzle from the table and finishes it in about 7 seconds; builds a bomb out of a plasma-bolt, a doll and a roller skate; builds a "bucking bronco" out of a toaster, a vacuum cleaner, and a lamp; reads aloud a description of a display at a local museum at a remarkable speed; is able to understand he can use a human as a shield from Jumba, by Pleakley's presence; and generally picks up quickly on what is happening around him.

Lingual Intuition: Stitch can converse fluently in over 20 different languages, but prefers Tantalog.

Cooking Intuition: He can cook 372 recipes, but prefers Chinese food.

Parallel Computing: He is an information repository, with a dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, and experiment catalogue, and records every moment of his life, in a reserved portion of his brain that can theoretically store up to 300 PB.

Guitar Player: He is also fluent in playing the guitar.

Vehicle Intuition: Also driving any sort of vehicle, which can be as simple as riding a tricycle or as complex as piloting inter-galactic spaceships.

Enhanced Strength: Stitch can lift objects 3,000 times his own size and weight is seen several times throughout the franchise, including incidents where he picks up a descending blast door, hits Dr. Jumba with a thrown Volkswagen Beetle (shouting gleefully, "blue punch buggy! No punch back!") and stops an 18-wheeled tanker of gasoline dead in its tracks. The reason why Stitch can lift 3000 times his own weight even though he has small arms is because his muscles contain excessive compressed amounts of myofibril in one muscle cell. This muscular arrangement makes Stitch's muscles contract 1000 times faster than a human's muscle can. The ability is sometimes joked about in the later series; for example, in Stitch! The Movie, Hämsterviel, while physically restraining Stitch for a cloning experiment, counters Stitch's strength with restraint devices, that are equal in strength themselves, as Hämsterviel loudly declares, to "three-thousand and one!" times Stitch's own weight.

Wall Crawling: Pads on Stitch's hands and feet can secrete a sticky substance allowing him to adhere to almost any surface and scale buildings and walls.

Spherical Form: His skeletal system is very flexible, allowing him to put his feet into his mouth and become a rolling ball and also to allow him to squeeze through tight spaces.

Enhanced Jump: Stitch's legs are small, but powerful enough to enable him to jump several feet into the air.

Enhanced Vision: Stitch has extremely large, forward looking eyes with red, reflective, photosensitive retinas to allow efficient and safe locomotion in trees and equipped with acute binocular and excellent night vision capabilities. He also has an extra eyelid that covers the eyes so it protects them from light.

Electromagnetic Vision: His eyes can pick up various forms of light and he can filter out one or the other if necessary. Stitch can see in normal vision, during this mode, his eyes appear black in color. Furthermore, he can also magnify his vision.

Night Vision: Eyes appear green.

Infrared Vision: Eyes appear red.

X-Ray Vision: Eyes appear bright green.

Enhanced Hearing: Stitch has extremely large, motor controlled ears, which are large compared to his body size, but account for acute, fine hearing and use of sonar. Like terrestrial bats, 626 uses sonar, which accounts for the size shape, and fine motor control of his ears and there are two 'chips' in each ear. One in the top of his right ear, and the other towards the bottom of his left ear. 626 can detect the sound of a blood-sucking leach at a hundred yards, and can move by emotion and capable hearing extremely well.

Audio Amplifier: He also can act as an audio amplifier, radio and/or microphone, illustrated when he uses a claw as the needle on a record player, and the music comes out of his open mouth.

Enhanced Smell: Stitch has acute senses of smell. His large nose is able to pick up any scent for a very far being distance away, smell up to 10 miles away. He is highly sensitive, has tiny pore in the nose for which he can breath through.

Skilled Hand-to-Hand Combat: He also dexterously skilled in hand-to-hand combat, using all four arms or just two.

Alien Form: In his alien form, he has spines on his back, two antennas on his head, and can grow two extra pair of arms.

Koala Form: Stitch can hide his spines, antennas and extra pair of two arms in his body, taking the form of an ordinary earth koala.

Eternal Youth: Stitch can't age and has show no signs of growing old.

Vacuum Adaptation: Along with the rest of his cousins, Stitch can survive in the vacuum of space due to being an genetic alien.

Weaknesses

Water: Stitch's greatest weakness is his inability to float or swim due to his dense molecular structure, which causes him to sink like a stone in water. Stitch originally had an instinctive aquaphobia, but was able to overcome it because of Lilo's influence over him. This weakness also lead to Stitch developing hydrophobia (a phobia of water). A major problem with this ability is that Stitch can survive in a vacuum-which has no air- so it wouldn't make sense for Stitch being afraid of water as he doesn't need to breathe.

Memory Erase: It is also shown that if Stitch consumes two different elements that form to create a particular chemical compound, all of his physical training will be wiped. It will result into eating left shoe and macadamia nuts.

Snootonium Drain: As Stitch is also 62% Snootonium, if this Snootonium is drained from his body, he will become temporarily exhausted from dehydration.

Sonic Blasts: Another weakness is the fact that his super-sensitive hearing can lead to temporary deafness when exposed to sonic blasts, such as Yaarp's destructive sound blast.

Sauerkraut: Stitch is allergic to sauerkraut.

Notes

Stitch was originally never seen in pod form, in the movies, or the series. This is likely that Jumba never had time to put him in pod form, and while on earth, either Jumba never had the opportunity or he never needed to.

Stitch's last name is never stated. It could be Pelekai or Jookiba. However, he simply may not have one as his true name is "Experiment 626," and Lilo states his name is "Stitch" when she adopted him from the dog shelter.

Several times in the franchise he has regurgitated food, like when when he grabbed Lilo's cake from his stomach. This implies that he has no gag reflex.

Stitch has never had to wear a space-suit which indicates he has an ability to withstand low pressures and have a minimal or no need of breathing.

Stitch prefers to speak his own gibberish because he has a limited English vernacular.

Stitch is warm-blooded.

Trivia

Despite not appearing in the show itself, Stitch was featured in some online games for the television series House of Mouse.

Stitch appears, along with several other Lilo & Stitch characters, in a parody of the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical, which was broadcast as part of the High School Musical: Around the World one-year anniversary special.

Stitch is very similar to the Beast from Beauty and the Beast (coincidentally, both characters were designed by Sanders):

They are both monsters judged by their appearance, but also true monsters at the start of their films.

They both met and befriended an outcast (Lilo and Belle), who gradually became their close friends.

Both started to develop feelings of compassion over time with their female companions.

Both received a chance to show to others they were not monsters and were accepted (Stitch was allowed to stay on Earth after displaying sentience to the Galactic Federation and accepted into Lilo's family; the Beast was turned back into a human after showing his love for Belle, and was accepted by the villagers).

Both are also known to be rude and bad-mannered, which has been shown in their respective films.

They also share similar characteristics: claws, fangs, head appendages (Stitch's antennae and Beast's horns), fur, expressive ears, and especially temper.

Interestingly, the scene of Stitch's "death" in Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch parallels the scene of Beast's death in Beauty and the Beast; both are also subsequently revived by the love of their female interests.

Stitch loves reading his favorite storybook, The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen, which he obtained from Lilo.

Stitch is also very fond of sea turtles and even sleeps with a stuffed one, as seen in Stitch Has a Glitch.

Following after Stitch Has a Glitch, Stitch's color has changed from dark blue to light blue.

When Stitch has a glitch, his eyes glow green.

Stitch is the first successful destructing experiment Jumba created after two failures: 600 and 625.

Stitch is one of two experiments that was never seen in pod form, the other being Leroy.

Strangely, unlike when Stitch was met in Birth by Sleep, when Sora summons Stitch in battle, the summon scene depicts him on his Hawaiian home. So far, it has not been explained as to why this is yet.

In the prequel comics, it is revealed that Stitch's genes contain those of some of the most powerful creatures in the galaxy, as well as some of Jumba's for "brains and good looks". One of the genes was from a puppy, explaining Stitch's resemblance to a dog (though Jumba did not know how it got in there).

Stitch bears a clear resemblance to Toothless, a Night Fury from DreamWorks How to Train Your Dragon. Even their facial expressions are similar, especially those showing excitement, wariness and anger. However, their personalities are somewhat different, as Stitch is far more mischievous. This is not a coincidence; Chris Sanders, Stitch's designer, was the designer for both characters and co-directed both films.

Stitch made two cameos in Big Hero 6: the first as a costume worn by Mochi in a painting, and the second as one of the pillows on Fred's bed.